Flora of North America species comparison

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Alnus oblongifolia

aliso (Mexico), Arizona alder, New Mexican alder, oblong leaf alder
Habit Trees, to 30 m; trunks often several, crowns spreading.
Bark

dark gray, smooth, becoming blackish and breaking into shallow vertical plates in age;

lenticels inconspicuous.
Leaf

blade narrowly ovate or lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 5–9 × 3–6 cm, leathery, base narrowly to broadly cuneate or narrowly rounded, margins flat, sharply and coarsely doubly serrate, rarely evenly and densely short-serrate, major teeth sharp, acuminate, secondary teeth distinctly larger, apex long to short-acuminate, rarely acute;

surfaces abaxially glabrous to sparsely pubescent or infrequently villous, moderately resin-coated.
Inflorescences

formed season before flowering and exposed during winter; staminate catkins in 1 or more clusters of 3–6, 3.5–10 cm; pistillate catkins in 1 or more clusters of 2–7.
Infructescences

ovoid, ellipsoid, or nearly cylindric, 1–2.5 × 0.8–1.5 cm;

peduncles 5–10 mm.
Winter

buds stipitate, ovoid, 4–8 mm, apex rounded;

stalks 1.5–4 mm;

scales 2, equal, valvate, sometimes incompletely covering underlying leaves, moderately resin-coated.
Flowering

before new growth in spring.
Samaras

elliptic to obovate, wings narrower than body, irregular in shape, leathery.

Alnus oblongifolia
Phenology Flowering early spring.
Habitat Sandy or rocky stream banks and moist slopes, often in mountain canyons
Elevation 1000–2300 m (3300–7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NM; Mexico (n Chihuahua and n Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Alnus oblongifolia is closely related to the Mexican and Central American A. acuminata, with which it has sometimes been confused. It is found only in scattered populations in the temperate deciduous forest vegetation zone of high mountains in the arid Southwest.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Betulaceae > subfam. Betuloideae > Alnus
Sibling taxa
A. glutinosa, A. incana, A. maritima, A. rhombifolia, A. rubra, A. serrulata, A. viridis
Name authority Torrey: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2: 204. (1859)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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